Neuroscience Perspectives provides multidisciplinary reviews of topics in one of the most diverse and rapidly advancing fields in the life sciences.
The recent discovery of an abundance of cannabinoid receptors in mammalian tissue has revolutionized cannabis research. Already it has led on to the further discovery that ligands for these receptors are present in the brain. A major implication of these findings is that cannabinoids have importance not only as pharmacological agents, but also as physiological mediators. Thus cannabinoid research must now extend well beyond the realms of pharmacology and molecular biology into those of physiology and pathophysiology.
Endogenous cannabinoids and their receptors could well have significant roles in the processes of perception, cognition, memory and learning, in the regulation of movement and in the control of mood and emotion. The evidence is that psychotropic cannabinoids have long been known to produce marked changes in all of these central activities, and it is the brain areas responsible for many of them (cerebral cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, basal ganglia and cerebellum) that are rich in cannabinoid receptors.
Pharmacological, physiological and clinical implications of the
discovery of cannabinoid receptors - an overview, R.G. Pertwee; structural
requirements for cannabinoid receptor probes, B.R. Martin et al; the role of
cell membranes in cannabinoid activity, A. Makriyannis; molecular biology of
the cannabinoid receptor, L.A. Matsuda and T.I. Bonner; localization of
cannabinoid receptors in brain and periphery, M. Herkenhaum; cannabinoid
compounds and signal transduction mechanisms, A.C. Howlett; functional
significance of cannabinoid receptors in brain, S.A. Deadwyler et al; the
unpaved road to the endogenous brain cannabinoid ligands, the anandamides, R.
Mechoulam and E. Fride.
